QOTD: What Would You Suggest Apple Do?
There are a lot of things that make Apple a great business, but then, there are a lot of things that people don't like about Apple either.
Regardless, Apple's existence in in the computer ecosystem is good for competition. No doubt, a lot of manufacturers are taking cues from Apple's styling department. For example, both Dell and HP have chased after the design cues of the MacBook Air.
But Apple's got some issues. This week, analysts reported that Apple took one of its biggest market hits ever and in fact, lost that 1-percent market share that it worked so hard to capture.
The question of the day is: As a PC/Windows user, what would you suggest to Apple to make it more competitive?
The trick here is, what would you suggest to Apple to grow the business, while at the same time preserve Apple's brand?
Or at least offer some alternative for entry-level users.
embrace hackintosh by decoupling osx from apple hardware, sell os for any pc that supports minimal configuration
offer unlimited access for itunes and unlimited download for ipod, like available for other players.
stop making it hard for hardware and software vendors to integrate ipod
allow ipod to play wma (drm) encoded multimedia content, music and videos.
replace objective-c with java, it's much easier and there are more tools and larger community of developers.
Or at least offer some alternative for entry-level users.
embrace hackintosh by decoupling osx from apple hardware, sell os for any pc that supports minimal configuration
offer unlimited access for itunes and unlimited download for ipod, like available for other players.
stop making it hard for hardware and software vendors to integrate ipod
allow ipod to play wma (drm) encoded multimedia content, music and videos.
replace objective-c with java, it's much easier and there are more tools and larger community of developers.
The 'market share' loss is due to the vast number of netbooks swamping the market right now. The profit on netbooks is bugger all though and would not be worth Apple's R&D costs. I'd also like them to release a new 30" ACD, its been a while.
This.
LOW YOUR PRIZES!!!!!!!! AND GIVE ME A FREE MAC PLEASE!! hahahaha...
Drop the aesthetics in favour of lowered pricing, improve the performance, cut the crap with the flashy looks on the OS like the windows when you minimize them, that just makes the user lose time. Make something out of that that will allow people to work on it, not just post useless news and blogs and the like. Right now the best use a Mac can get is look good on a desk, and that's it. It doesn't have any performance advantage against any other PC, plus it's more expensive.
One has to wonder though, why the **** does anyone buy them? Unlike art, these depreciate over time...
I hope that this small "Apple hysteria" at Tom's will blow over soon because that's really not why we come here. I think that we are here because we have decided to go windows and want to make our experience the best and cheapest possible, something that is hard to do on a mac.
I can deal with windows being closed source OS, the only way for me to consider switching to OSX at this stage is if it goes open source.
Sadly there isn't much Apple can do at this stage other than becoming more open and dropping the prices on as many products as they can. The economic environment is tough and as much as I dislike Ballmer he's right about the $500 mac tax. Apple simply has to hunker down and survive the current bad economy. After this period is over they did some things very well, I like their approach to designing their hardware look and feel. I would consider buying an iPhone if I didn't have to install quicktime to connect it to my PC lol.
people please don't separate Macs and PC's into different categories. they're the same thing. except a different OS.